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“No one likes Oss and we don’t care”, so says a cleverly worded banner at the rear of the stand populated by the ultras of FC Oss. For this is the current name of the club far better known by their previous name of Top Oss. Formed in 1928 as KMD (Klein Maar Dapper, which means Small But Brave) however the club soon changed their name as many other clubs already had the name KMD. The new name was TOP (Tot Plezier Ons, which means For Our Pleasure). The club became TOP Oss in 1994 to more clearly identify with the town they represented. Sadly six years in 2009 the club dropped the “TOP” altogether and became FC Oss. Looking at the ultras flags though many of them still refer to the club as TOP Oss.

The club were briefly professional in the 1950’s when they competed in the Tweede Divisie but rejoined the amateur ranks in 1957. They only turned professional again as recently as 1991, after three amateur championship wins, and have mainly competed at the second level Eerste Divisie. A brief one season spell in the third level Topklasse in 2010/11 resulted in the club returning to the Eerste as Topklasse champions.

In 1996 the club were granted permission to renovate the old Top Oss Stadion, and work on the new grandstand started a year later. The north and west stands were completed by the end of the 1998/99 season with the North stand providing changing facilities for the amateur wing of the club. The remaining end has a “Talentencampus” opened in 2008 to house young players. Unusually FC Oss and near neighbours NEC Nijmegen have a combined youth academy system.

Oss had a reasonable season last campaign, finishing ninth, but have recently sold a number of players including goalkeeper Luuk Koopmans to PSV and back in January Kevin van Veen went to Scunthorpe United for 300,000 Euros. Tonight’s visitors are FC Emmen who finished fourth in last seasons table but lost out in the play-offs. The visitors look like they could be strong contenders again this campaign as their breezed to a very comfortable win, celebrated wildly by their small band of travelling supporters.